The Crest players were rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Lights were on at the monastery, and even from quite a distance away, they could hear monks and nuns singing hymns. The monastery had turned into a hive of activity.
“I never thought I’d see NPCs here…”
K looked around with astonishment.
For a long time, players wondered why the world map was dotted with churches and monasteries. Monsters didn’t spawn inside them, but there were no NPCs to interact with, either. Nobody knew what purpose they served. Even the most curious of players—who scoured any in-game literature they could get their hands on for clues, talked to any NPCs they could find, and took on any available quests—didn’t discover anything, not even what entity these places of worship were dedicated to.
“Greetings,” a nun standing by the door said to the players.
She was dressed in a habit with a black-and-white veiled headpiece. Her appearance seemed to be based on real-world nuns, although she wasn’t wearing a crucifix.
“My name is Una. I am the prioress of Olsrott Monastery.”
She bowed, and the astonished players bowed back to her.
K asked her the question on everyone’s mind. “Pardon me, Una, but could you tell me when you and your order moved in here?”
The nun kept smiling, but she seemed mystified by his question.
“Whatever do you mean? We have always been here, as our vocation demands.”
The players knew that wasn’t true. The abandoned monastery had been the scene of mass murder, with no nuns in sight. Nobody was going to argue with the nun, though. NPCs would appear out of thin air, then disappear again. That mechanic was part of many quests. Questioning an NPC about why they’d suddenly popped into existence was pointless. They could only say what they were scripted to.
“Have you come here to receive a divine blessing?”
Una’s question immediately got Barbara’s attention.
“Can you tell me more about this blessing?”
“Certainly. Visitors to the monastery who offer prayers together with us will be blessed by the angels.” Una placed a hand on her chest. “I would encourage you to always come to receive the blessing before you head into battle.”
“Before battle? Sounds like a stat buff,” guessed Rao.
“It might be worth getting, but…” Reilan trailed off.
She looked around the monastery with mixed emotions. It was almost like a completely different place, with no less than twenty nuns busily walking this way and that. There were no piles of player drops on the floor. Even if the items were still somewhere around, it would be difficult to search for them with so many NPCs going on about their business.
“Right. I, for one, am definitely not going to do any praying in here,” Kettle said bluntly.
Una’s eyebrow appeared to twitch imperceptibly.
Barbara was going to caution Kettle not to needlessly egg on the NPCs, but a sudden flashback to the Liberator’s “demonstration” changed her mind. The Liberator had his victims kneel in prayer so that he could kill them in plain sight. Barbara and the others had helplessly witnessed people getting murdered. They sympathized with Kettle’s reaction.
“Well, anyway, let’s do what we’d come here for first,” said K.
The players spread out through the monastery to look for item drops, but no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find anything. Perhaps they had timed out and disappeared by then.
“Would you like to receive a divine blessing?” Una asked again.
Everyone was traumatized by the Liberator incident, so they weren’t keen on the idea of offering a prayer…but there was one exception.
“I’ll give it a go.”
“Are you serious, Shoukichi?!”
“It’s not the same thing as with the Liberator.”
Kettle tried to stop him, but he brushed her hand off his shoulder and stepped forward to talk to Una.
“I’ll offer up a prayer to God.”
Una smiled as she corrected him: “We worship angels, not God.”
Either way, it didn’t make a difference to Shoukichi. He let Una lead him farther inside the monastery. Barbara exchanged looks with the rest of the party, and they all followed him.
“Huh?” Shoukichi watched a group of praying nuns with bafflement. “Why are they praying to an empty chair?”
The nuns were kneeling around a fancy chair, a throne perhaps. Nobody was sitting in it, but the nuns were worshipping the chair earnestly. It looked really bizarre.
Una gazed at the chair solemnly and explained, “God does not visit the world of mortals. When they have a message for us, they send an angel to deliver it. Angels are God’s proxies; they are the executors of divine orders. This seat is reserved for such a divine messenger, should they grace us with their presence.”
Una joined the other nuns in prayer.
“Hmm, okay,” Shoukichi mumbled.
He gathered up his courage and started praying to that big, empty chair.
Please give the players who died here a peaceful rest in the afterlife.
Suddenly, he was bathed in a golden glow.
“Is this…the blessing…?”
Shoukichi could actually feel it working, and when he checked his stats, he saw they had increased. He turned to his party, all excited.
“I got stat boosts!”
He reckoned his stats had gone up by about 10 percent. A new icon had appeared in his user interface. When he looked directly at it, an info prompt unfolded.
Angel’s Blessing
The God of Light created angels, and these angels look after humans. The angels punish sinners and reward those who show promise with their blessings. Pray dutifully, and the blessing you receive may become even more potent.
Blessing Level 1: EXP +25%, Stats +10%, Recovery +10%, MP Cost -10%
Effect expires in: 23:59:55
It was a massive buff.
When Shoukichi told his friends what the buff did, they dismissed their apprehensions and came forward to receive it, too.
“This buff’s incredible…but what unlocked it, I wonder?” mused Barbara.
“Us killing the player killers? Nah, probably not…,” said K.
Now everyone was getting the buff, thrilled at the effects. Shoukichi was totally stoked.
“It lasts twenty-four hours!” he said. “We can keep it up just by praying once a day! This is going to make leveling up and raiding dungeons so much easier!”
The return of NPCs to churches and monasteries turned out to be hugely advantageous to players.
✦ ✦ ✦
The false Liberator’s crimes had come to an end with his death. Players who had lost their friends to the killer’s gang would have to live on with painful memories, but they wanted to go on living and continued to strive to find a way out of the game.
Shuutarou experienced his first dungeon invasion, which was successfully squashed thanks to Punio and Beorite, the latter of whom had triumphantly returned from his trials. Having unexpectedly grown yet more powerful, Shuutarou swore to use his newfound strength to protect his friends.
News of the player-killer incident sent a shock wave through the fighters on the front lines. Wataru agonized over the decisions he’d had to make. Makoto regretted having left his friends behind. Byakuren saw her priorities with clarity again. As for Misaki, every day she nocked countless arrows on her bow, her eyes firmly on her targets.
A squad of some of the strongest players in the game cleared the Cerou Underground Labyrinth. They defeated a boss monster unlike any they’d dealt with before—something called an elemental spirit. But were the angels allies, or foes?